Vladislav Surkov

Surkov has been described as an influential political strategist and is sometimes referred to as a "grey cardinal" of Russian politics. He has also been linked to literary works published under the pseudonym Nathan Dubovitsky.

Vladislav Surkov studied at National University of Science and Technology, Moscow State Institute of Culture and International University in Moscow. The recorded working language is Russian and English. The field of work recorded is performing arts, political activity and entrepreneurship. Che Guevara is recorded as an influence. Positions recorded include Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and Kremlin Chief of Staff. Distinctions recorded are Order of Honour, Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class, Order of Alexander Nevsky and Stolypin Medal, 2nd class.

• Office — Assistant to the President of Russia • Term Start — 20 September 2013 • Term End — 18 February 2020 • Predecessor — Tatyana Golikova • Office1 — Deputy Prime Minister of Russia • Term Start1 — 27 December 2011 • Term End1 — 8 May 2013 • Prime Minister1 — Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev • Predecessor1 — Vyacheslav Volodin • Successor1 — Sergei Prikhodko • Office2 — First Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff • Term Start2 — 15 May 2008 • Term End2 — 27 December 2011 • President2 — Dmitry Medvedev • Predecessor2 — Dmitry Kozak • Successor2 — Vyacheslav Volodin • Office3 — Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff • Term Start3 — 3 August 1999 • Term End3 — 12 May 2008 • President3 — Boris Yeltsin Vladimir Putin • Predecessor3 — Sergei Zverev • Successor3 — Alexey Gromov • Born — 21 September 1964 • Birthplace — Solntsevo, Lipetsk Oblast, Soviet Union • Party — United Russia • Children — 4 • Alma Mater — International University in Moscow

According to Surkov's official biography and birth certificate, he was born on 21 September 1964 in Solntsevo, Lipetsk Oblast, Russian SFSR. As per other statements, he was born in 1962 in Shali, Checheno-Ingush ASSR.[4] His birth name is sometimes reported to be Aslambek Dudayev.[6] His parents, the ethnic Russian Zinaida Antonovna Surkova (born 1935) and the ethnic Chechen Yuriy ("Andarbek") Danil'bekovich Dudayev (1942–2014), were school teachers in Duba-yurt, Checheno-Ingush ASSR.[8] Following the separation of his parents, his mother moved to Lipetsk and he was baptized into Eastern Orthodox Christianity.[9] In an interview published in June 2005 in the German magazine Der Spiegel, Surkov stated that his father was ethnic Chechen and that he spent the first five years of his life in Chechnya,[10] in Duba-yurt and Grozny.[11] Surkov has claimed to be a relative of Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.[13] From 1982 to 1983, Surkov attended MISIS, but did not graduate from it. From 1983 to 1985, Surkov served in a Soviet artillery regiment in Hungary, according to his official biography.[14] However, former defence minister Sergei Ivanov stated in a 2006 TV interview that Surkov served in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) during the same time period.[15] After his military training, Surkov was accepted into the Moscow Institute of Culture for a five-year program in theater direction, but spent only three years there.[16] Surkov graduated from Moscow International University with a master's degree in economics in the late 1990s.

In the late 1980s, when the government lifted the ban against private businesses, Surkov started out in business. In 1987, he became head of the advertising department of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's businesses. From 1991 to April 1996, he held key managerial positions in advertising and PR departments of Khodorkovsky's Bank Menatep. From March 1996 to February 1997, he was at Rosprom, and since February 1997 with Mikhail Fridman's Alfa-Bank.[17] At Alfa-Bank, he worked closely with Oleg Markovich Govorun (born 15 January 1969 Bratsk, USSR).[18] In September 2004, Surkov was elected president of the board of directors of the oil products transportation company Transnefteproduct, but was instructed by Russia's prime minister Mikhail Fradkov to give up the position in February 2006.[20]

After a brief career as a public relations director at the television channel ORT from 1998 to 1999, Surkov was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia in 1999. According to the Dossier Center, he has supported far-right groups since at least 2000.[22] Early in his tenure, Surkov often appeared in public and international media as a spokesperson for the Kremlin. In August 2000, he confirmed that Gazprom would acquire Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-Most, then the owner of NTV, Russia's only nationwide independent television channel.[23] In September 2002, he announced that the Kremlin would not reinstate the statue of KGB founder Felix Dzerzhinsky, which had been removed during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.[24] After the 2003 State Duma election, when United Russia won 37.6% of the vote, Surkov said: "We are living in a new Russia now."[25] In March 2004, he was additionally appointed aide to the president.[26] Since 2006, Surkov has promoted a political doctrine he called sovereign democracy, intended as a response to democracy-promotion efforts by the United States and European states.[27] Western media often described the doctrine as controversial, while Russian media and much of the political elite generally endorsed it.[28] Surkov described the concept as a distinct Russian political language for use in relations with the outside world. As a leading advocate of sovereign democracy, Surkov gave two major speeches in 2006: Sovereignty is a Political Synonym of Competitiveness in February[29] and Our Russian Model of Democracy is Titled Sovereign Democracy in June.[30] • Illustration — Surkov in April 2010 On 8 February 2007, Moscow State University marked the 125th anniversary of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's birth with a conference titled "Lessons of the New Deal for Modern Russia and the World", attended by Surkov and political consultant Gleb Pavlovsky. Surkov compared Roosevelt's policies to those of President Putin, describing the New Deal as a potential model for modern Russia. Pavlovsky suggested that Putin should follow Roosevelt's example and seek a third presidential term.[31][32] According to The Moscow Times, Surkov influenced the appointment of Ramzan Kadyrov as acting Head of the Chechen Republic on 15 February 2007.[33] Kadyrov later served multiple terms as head of Chechnya and has been widely accused of human rights abuses.[35] In October 2009, Surkov warned that opening and modernizing Russia's political system—a reform agenda stressed by President Dmitry Medvedev—could lead to instability that "could rip Russia apart".[36] In September 2011, Mikhail Prokhorov resigned from the Right Cause party after five months as its leader. He described the party as a puppet of the Kremlin and called Surkov the "main puppet master of the political process" (главным кукловодом политического процесса), according to Korrespondent, as reported by The New York Times.[37] The Kremlin responded that Surkov would remain in his role.[39] At that time, Reuters described Surkov as the Kremlin's "shadowy chief political strategist", one of the most powerful men in the government and a close ally of then–Prime Minister Putin.

On 27 December 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev reassigned Surkov to the post of Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Modernisation, a move widely interpreted as a consequence of the disputed 2011 parliamentary elections.[40] Reflecting on his career at the time, Surkov stated: among those who helped Boris Yeltsin to secure a peaceful transfer of power; among those who helped President Putin stabilize the political system; among those who helped President Medvedev liberalize it. All the teams were great."[41] • Illustration — Surkov speaking at the Fifth Congress of the Nashi Youth Movement During this period, Surkov was involved in supporting pro-government youth movements, including Nashi. He met with movement leaders and participants several times and delivered lectures on the political situation.[42] Nashi has been described by journalist Edward Lucas as the Kremlin's equivalent of the Soviet-era Komsomol.[44] • Illustration — Surkov on his last day as deputy prime minister, with Sergei Ivanov and Arkady Dvorkovich Following Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency in 2012, commentators noted that Surkov became increasingly marginalized as Putin shifted toward more direct repression rather than the political management associated with Surkov.[45] As deputy prime minister, Surkov criticized the Investigative Committee of Russia for pursuing cases against opposition leaders, arguing such matters should fall under the prosecutor general's office. The Committee announced that he had offered to resign on 7 May 2013, while Surkov himself said he submitted his resignation on 28 April 2013. Putin accepted his resignation on 8 May 2013.[46]

On 20 September 2013, Putin appointed Surkov as an aide in the Presidential Executive Office, with responsibilities relating to Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Ukraine. His work immediately centered on developments in Ukraine during the November 2013 Euromaidan protests and the February 2014 Revolution of Dignity.[49] Surkov had earlier been described as the Kremlin's "Éminence grise" or "Grey Cardinal" for shaping the concept of "sovereign democracy" and overseeing state media propaganda.[50][51] On 17 March 2014, one day after the Crimean referendum, Surkov was among the first eleven Russian officials sanctioned by the United States. The measures, enacted through the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN), froze any US assets and barred entry to the United States.[52] Surkov dismissed the sanctions, stating: "The only things that interest me in the US are Tupac Shakur, Allen Ginsberg, and Jackson Pollock. I don't need a visa to access their work."[62] On 21 March 2014, the European Union also added Surkov to its sanctions list, barring him from entry and freezing his EU-based assets.[63] In February 2015, Ukraine's security service (SBU) accused Surkov of coordinating snipers responsible for killings during the January 2014 protests.[65] The Russian government rejected these claims as "absurd". Despite being under EU sanctions, Surkov joined Putin's delegation to Mount Athos in Greece in May 2016.[68] Academic research has highlighted Surkov's central role in efforts to promote a "Novorossiya" identity in eastern Ukraine, which largely failed to take root.[69]

• Illustration — The "Normandy Format" talks in October 2016, with Surkov between Putin and Frank-Walter Steinmeier In October 2016, the Ukrainian hacker group CyberHunta released over a gigabyte of emails and documents alleged to belong to Surkov.[70] According to the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, the 2,337 emails came from the official government account "prm_surkova".[71] The Kremlin dismissed the documents as forgeries.[72] Media outlets reported that the correspondence described Russian efforts to destabilize Ukraine and coordination with opposition leaders in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine.[73] Among the leaked material was a document sent by Denis Pushilin, then chairman of the People's Council of the Donetsk People's Republic, listing casualties between 26 May and 6 June 2014. Another file outlined a 22-page plan to support nationalist and separatist politicians and to push for early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, with the stated aim of undermining the government in Kiev.[74]

• Illustration — The "Normandy Format" talks in October 2019, with Surkov next to Sergei Lavrov On 11 February 2019, Surkov published an article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta titled "The Long State of Putin", in which he outlined his concept of "Putinism".[75] The article was widely covered in Russian and international media.[76] On 18 February 2020, Surkov was dismissed as presidential adviser.[79] A week later, he told Actualnye kommentarii that he had resigned on his own initiative, echoing reasons cited earlier by journalists Vladimir Solovyev and Alexei Venediktov.[80] He said that he had focused mainly on Donbas and Ukraine, but that the "context" had changed. In the same interview, he stated that "There is no Ukraine" and argued that "coercion to fraternal relations by force is the only method that has historically proven its effectiveness in the Ukrainian direction".[81]

In April 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Surkov was reported to be under house arrest on allegations of embezzling funds intended for the Donbas separatist region.[84]

In August 2009, the business newspaper Vedomosti reported that Surkov was widely believed to be the author of the novel Close to Zero (Околоноля), published under the pseudonym Natan Dubovitsky in Russian Pioneer. The pseudonym closely resembles the surname of Surkov's wife, Natalya Dubovitskaya.[97] In a later edition of the book, Surkov contributed a preface under his own name in which he appeared to both distance himself from and praise the work, describing its author as "an unoriginal Hamlet-obsessed hack" while also calling it "the best book I have ever read". The novel, subtitled "gangsta fiction", satirizes public relations, corruption, and publishing culture in Russia. A stage adaptation directed by Kirill Serebrennikov premiered in January 2011, which Surkov attended.[98] Critics offered divergent views: Peter Pomerantsev described it as "exactly the sort of book Surkov's youth groups burn on Red Square", while The Economist argued that it "exposed the vices of the system [Surkov] himself had created".[99] Additional works published under the name Natan Dubovitsky in Russian Pioneer include The Little Car and the Bicycle [gaga saga] (2012), Uncle Vanya [cover version] (2014), Without Sky (2014), and Ultranormality (2017).[100]

Surkov has married twice. His first marriage, to Yulia Petrovna Vishnevskaya (née Lukoyanova, Лукоянова) in 1987, ended in divorce in 1996. In his second marriage, Surkov married Natalya Dubovitskaya, his secretary when he was an executive at the Menatep bank, in a civil ceremony in 2004.[109] Surkov has four children. Surkov has composed songs and written texts for the Russian rock-musician Vadim Samoylov, ex-member of the band Agata Kristi. He speaks English and is fond of poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg.[111]

Vladislav Surkov was recorded at birth as Владислав Юрьевич Сурков. He also worked under the names Natan Dubowizki and Натан Дубовицкий. The authorities additionally record the headings Nathan Dubovitsky and Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov. His recorded languages were Russian and English.

Vladislav Surkov worked in performing arts, political activity and entrepreneurship. Recorded positions include Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Kremlin Chief of Staff, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, Chief of the Government Staff and Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff.

Surkov has been the subject of criticism from politicians, activists, and media throughout his career. In 2007, a report by the Open Source Center identified the Russian news site ura.ru as reportedly having links to him.[85] Before the 2010 U.S.–Russia "Civil Society to Civil Society" summit, U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R–FL-27) led a petition urging the Obama administration to suspend participation until Surkov was replaced as a Russian delegate. In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, she described him as "one of the main propagators of limiting freedom of speech in Russia, intimidating Russian journalists and representatives of opposition political parties".[86] The summit nevertheless went ahead.[87] That same year, inside Russia, human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva appealed to President Dmitry Medvedev to dismiss Surkov.[88] In November, opposition leaders Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Milov, and Vladimir Ryzhkov also demanded his resignation, citing policies they said threatened press freedom.[89] After Surkov's dismissal as Deputy Prime Minister in May 2013, The Economist described him as the architect of "a system of make-believe", involving imitation political parties, stage-managed media, and orchestrated social movements.[90] Between 2013 and 2014, writer Peter Pomerantsev published a series of essays in The Atlantic,[91] The New York Times,[92] and the London Review of Books[93] describing Surkov as "Putin's chief ideologue" with "unsurpassed influence over Russian politics". He argued that Surkov had reduced Russian politics to "postmodernist theatre". In an October 2013 lecture at the Legatum Institute, Pomerantsev and Pavel Khodorkovsky went further, calling Russia a "postmodern dictatorship".[95] In 2014, Igor Strelkov, a leader in the war in Donbass, referred to Surkov as "notorious", claiming he focused "only on destruction... in South Ossetia and other regions where he engaged in looting rather than aid".[96]

Surkov's political style has drawn attention outside Russia. In 2011, Peter Pomerantsev described him in the London Review of Books as central to a system of "ceaseless shape-shifting" designed to confuse and weaken opposition. In the 2016 BBC documentary HyperNormalisation, filmmaker Adam Curtis argued that Surkov's blend of politics and theatre offered a model later mirrored in the rise of Donald Trump.[101] Around the same time, journalist Ned Resnikoff likewise highlighted the "phantasmagoric" nature of Surkov's techniques.[103] In 2019, Surkov himself declared that "Russia is playing with the West's minds", adding that "they don't know how to deal with their own changed consciousness".[104] The same year, Japanese scholar Sanshiro Hosaka analyzed leaked emails in a study of Surkov's "political technology" and its role in the war in Donbas.[105] In a 2021 interview with the Financial Times, journalist Henry Foy described Surkov as "a founding father of Putinism", crediting him with stage-managing the 2014 annexation of Crimea and Russia's involvement in eastern Ukraine. Surkov said he was "proud that I was part of the reconquest [of Ukraine]" and compared Putin with Octavian.[106] He also argued that "an overdose of freedom is lethal to a state".Most people need their heads to be filled with thoughts. You are not going to feed people with some highly intellectual discourse... Generally most people consume very simple-meaning beliefs. This is normal. There is haute cuisine, and there is McDonald's. Everyone takes advantage of such people all over the world. Surkov was the inspiration for the fictional character Vadim Baranov in the 2022 French novel The Wizard of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli; the character was played by Paul Dano in the 2025 film adaptation.[107]